Costa Rica Adventure, Day 1: Tico Rhythm

In this post, I’ll cover Day 1 of our Costa Rica Adventure with Adventures by Disney.  Day 1 is arrival day.  In a perfect world, we would have arrived around 1pm, been whisked away to our hotel, and spent the afternoon lazing about the pool at the Marriott San Jose.   This post would have a thorough hotel review and a review of our amazing Costa Rican dinner.  Due to a last minute flight cancellation and a comical amount of flight delays, we missed our connecting flight in Atlanta and eventually made the last flight of the day to San Jose, which was also delayed.  We didn’t arrive at our hotel until close to 10pm and checked out early the next morning, so I didn’t have a chance to tour the property and take pictures.  We ate dinner at the TGIF in the Atlanta airport and you really don’t need a review of that.

If there is any silver lining to having a delay, it is that I got to see firsthand how Disney handles these mishaps.  As soon as I knew we were going to miss our flight from ATL to SJO, I called the Adventures by Disney emergency travel number.  I always advise my clients to carry all documents sent by their tour operator and I flag the arrival instructions and the procedure for late arrivals when I go over the documents with them.  The Adventures by Disney phone agent put me in contact directly with one of our guides, Lauren.  I let her know we had missed our flight and were currently on standby for the next flight.  We had a confirmed seat the following morning, but at that point, our tour group would have been on the way to Arenal.  Lauren was amazing.  She made sure that we would have transportation to our Arenal hotel directly from SJO, if it came to that.  We stayed in contact via text message while we waited to see if our family was going to be able to board the late flight.  As soon as we got the good news that we had confirmed seats on the late flight, I texted Lauren our flight information and she arranged our airport transfer.  That was it.  I didn’t have to stress on the flight about how we were going to get from the airport to the hotel.   

Our arrival into SJO could not have gone smoother.  Customs and Immigration was a breeze.  The line through customs didn’t take longer than five minutes.  Even after a long day of travel, the kids were excited to get their first passports stamps.  After that, we were off to retrieve our luggage.  As we came into the bag claim area, we saw a gentleman holding an Adventures by Disney sign with our last name on it.  He had a cart ready to help us with our luggage.  I always think the worst, so I braced myself for lost, misplaced, or damaged luggage.  I was pleasantly surprised that despite our luggage arriving before we did, we had no issues.  He loaded all of our luggage on a cart and escorted us through the security checkpoint to have our luggage screened and then loaded all of our luggage back on the cart for us.  This was a bit awkward for us since we’re used to handling our own luggage.  We kept assisting.  He escorted us outside to wait for our transportation.  It was very busy with crowds of people waiting for various hotel and parking shuttles and taxis.  It was nice to have someone handle all of our luggage and escort us to where we needed to be.  It let me concentrate on making sure my kids didn’t get lost in the crowd.  We only waited a few minutes when our driver pulled up in a clean, air-conditioned Toyota SUV.  The drive from the airport to the hotel was only about 20 minutes.  Our driver was friendly and spoke excellent English.

A quick note about tipping on an Adventures by Disney tour.  Don’t do it.  Gratuities for luggage handling, drivers, housekeeping, and local tour guides are included in the price of your tour.  The gratuities for your adventures guides is not included.  I will cover more on that later.  I double and triple checked the tipping guidelines in our tour documents.  I wanted to make sure I wasn’t shorting anybody.  It felt strange not to tip for good service, but know that Adventures by Disney takes care of this on your behalf.  It was really nice not to fumble around with local currency late at night while standing on a busy sidewalk outside the airport.      

As we pulled into the hotel portico, our guides Lauren and Fico were waiting for us.  Before I could even get myself and the kids out of the car, the staff from the Marriott was unloading our bags and transferring them to our rooms.  We met briefly with Lauren and Fico in the hotel lobby.  They knew we had had a long day of travel, so they kept the welcome talk brief.  It consisted of letting us know what time to set our luggage out in the morning, where and when to meet for breakfast, what to wear for the next day’s adventure, alerting us of a food allergy in our group, and letting us know that it is safe to drink the water.    

We were given our room keys, luggage tags, an Adventures by Disney branded duffle bag, some local candy treats, and our Day 1 pin.  On each day of your adventure, everyone in your party receives a custom Disney pin which highlights what you did that day.  It is one of the little extras that makes traveling with Disney special and the only time that Disney characters ever make an appearance on these adventures (other than the Disney movies they show on the bus).  Clara looked forward to receiving her pin every day and throughout the trip we had fun trying to guess which character would be on the day’s pin. 

Needless to say, we were spent.  We made our way to our room, where our bags were waiting for us.  The air conditioning in the room was on full blast and it felt amazing.  We took quick showers and went to bed immediately.  We had to rest up.  We had an early morning and a full day of adventure ahead of us. 

Amanda is the owner of Travel Adventures by Amanda, powered by Dream Vacations, specializing in cruises, tours, treks, and custom independent travel adventures for individuals, families, and groups.  For help planning your next adventure, contact Amanda at (901) 901-800-6091 or abiggerstaff@dreamvacations.com.